From the get-go ASUS has had their DC3 cooling solution ready for AMD’s R9 Fury and this cooling solution is engulfs the PCB and indeed the entire design of this graphics card. DC3 OC is monolithic in its proportions, measuring a whopping: 30.5 x 15.22 x3.98cm. Over on the next page there is more detail surrounding the implementation of DC3.


Flipping the card over, on the reverse the design is somewhat different to the GTX 980Ti version which ASUS has produced. A thick, metal plate covers the entire PCB with an extra bracket placed on the underside of the GPU location. Both these items protect the card from bending or getting knocked. It’s becoming common practise on higher-end cards to include backplates as it helps to maintains rigidity.


DC3 introduces a trio of cooling fans to the DirectCU family. These 90mm fans use a wing-blade design and will cease spinning if the card remains under 65C – this means that gamers can enjoy silence whilst gaming. When the fans are operational they spin at up to 40%. The principal idea behind the STRIX cards is to design the product to adopt low-noise – therefore the intention is to strike a good balance between performance and silence.

Running down the outer edge of the DC3 OC is a continuation of the metal shroud along with a pulsating STRIX LED – this glows when the system has power.


Since DC3 OC is designed for ultra-high resolution gaming such as 4K, there are a plethora of ports on the IO plate. These include the following:

• 1x DVI-I port
• 3x DisplayPort
• 1x HDMI port

So this opens the door for multi-screen configurations and ensures you’re able to run the card at optimum settings but if you’re planning to go for a single 4K screen configuration it’s a good idea to go with DP or HDMI to get the faster refresh rate.

Since this is an AMD card there is no port for the Crossfire – this is all done via software.


For the power requirements, our Fury card demands 8+8pin. ASUS recommend state that up to 375W is needed for this card. In our benchmark tests the card maxed out at 331W for overall system power.

On the next page we’ll take a close look at the actual cooler and PCB/components.